The silver-haired baker is returning with fellow judge Mary Berry to the next series of The Great British Bake-Off and he said that he was now more likely to opt for pies than cakes.

He told What'sOnTV: "I'm sick of cakes! Personally I prefer savoury to sweet, like pies."

He added: "After four years, even the crew are more likely to devour a savoury bake quicker than a cake!"

Paul said of this year's BBC One show, which starts on Wednesday (August 6): "When you look at Bake Off this year, cake only plays a small part. We do pies, puddings, bread, and pastries.

"We've got some fantastic technical challenges, and there's a lot more diversity into European-style baking. We've also got a couple of big 'wow!' bakes."

He said of sometimes disagreeing with Mary: "We have healthy chats! But there's nothing abnormal about that. It comes down to integrity and we know what we're talking about. It's been really tricky picking the star baker this year. Someone [good] will always slip through the net."